The Way We Were
by Millenium Ring
Summary: The third part to my ScorpionFlower trilogy. After losing Sasori, Sakura doesn't think she'll ever move on from his death. So when he's back from the dead, everything changes for the better. But just when things start to look up, the Akatsuki make their final move on the world. Will the Scorpion and Flower make it through the war?
1. Chapter 1

Hey everyone! It's been a while, right? Well I DO apologise for the delay in finishing this series off, especially since I had begun it before and then removed it rather suddenly. I honestly didn't like where I had taken the story before, so down it went. Now I know what I'm doing - I hope - so this one should be a: better and b: finished at long last. I have this part done and I will be putting up the next chapter within the next week, since I've typed up a bit of it already and I know what is going into it this time. For new readers to this story, please do read the first two parts before beginning this one - _The Scorpion and the Flower's Freedom_ and _A Broken Friendship_ \- to get a full understanding of the series. Confusion will probably take hold if you dive headlong into this fic first xD. Enjoy!

**Chapter 1**

_It's been one week since Sasori died. I still can't believe he's gone, but then the nightmares come and all I can see are the charred remains of Sasori's body scattered in that clearing, while an orange-masked monster laughs and laughs. I get variations of this scene each night, so I haven't had a decent amount of sleep yet. Even my friends are worried about me now, but who can blame them when I look like the living dead at the moment._

_So, Ino suggested that I write down what's been bothering me. She says talking about it might help me move past it, but I don't want to moan about this to anyone. How can I? They don't understand why I feel this way, when I barely knew Sasori before that Akatsuki bastard killed him. I can't explain it, not even to myself, but those few days I had with Sasori felt right somehow. It was like finding my other half at last. And not once did I get to tell him how I felt._

_Well, at least I'm telling you._

_I bet you're wondering who Sasori is, right? Well, I met him almost two months ago, while I was on a mission to investigate a creepy village in a creepy forest – yes I know that is a stupid sentence, but I don't care because it __**was **__creepy! Anyway, I got captured by the ninja from that place, who had a crazy plan to kill me and use my body as cannon fodder in an invasion they were plotting. I didn't think that I'd get out of there in time to warn the Sand village, since that was the first target on the creepy bad guy's list, when another prisoner in the cells helped me escape. It turned out he was a ninja too and his leader had also sent him to investigate that village. That ninja was Sasori._

_At first he was harsh and abrupt, with little patience for me if I tried to start a conversation or asked too many questions. He only agreed to help me get out of that place because it benefitted him too; those ninja were good at sealing a person's body, so neither one of us was leaving on our own. His attitude didn't bother me __**that**__ much after a while, but I guess it was because he was the only person around for miles – that wasn't trying to kill me – and I'll admit it…I was starting to get a crush._

_I think he grew to respect me just a little after we'd had a couple of altercations with the Darkness village ninjas – those crazy bad guys that were marching towards Suna with an army of cadavers – because he wasn't quite as rude as when we'd started the escape. He was even opening up to me a little! Until he got stressed out and tried to strangle me to death…I know what you're thinking, but I'm not crazy! I swear. It was the first and last time he ever hurt me, physically at least, and he was sorry afterwards._

_I'm getting a little off track here, aren't I? _

_So, just before we got out of that horrible black forest, we were stuck in yet __**another**__ fight with the bad guys! And they were going to win for sure, probably, until Sasori reveals his best weapon to them – his own body! It turned out, he had turned himself into a puppet __**years**__ ago – twenty, I later learned – and he kicked some serious butt at that moment. I, unfortunately, hadn't really been paying attention to what Sasori was up to. Not until the fighting was over and I saw how…different he truly was compared with anybody else. He told me what he was and I took the information fairly well, I thought. _

_I fainted dead on the spot._

_I know, I'm a failure and an embarrassment for a ninja, but how would __**you**__ handle that kind of information overload? Not well, I bet. _

_When I woke up, Sasori had been kind enough to get us both out of the forest and into the relative safety of the open desert of the Wind Country. I had soooo many questions for him about __**everything**__, but in the end I just settled on asking him to be friends with me. A little desperate, but I needed to keep in contact with someone that fascinating. It's not every day that a person meets a living, breathing puppet who also happens to be a ninja with a questionable lifestyle. Plus, he'd saved me a few times back there and he seemed pretty lonely to me._

_And cute. I admit that much, alright?_

_He left me alone pretty quick-ish after that, not really answering me positively or negatively, and surprise surprise, I was set upon by the last dredges of the Darkness ninja – complete with an utter asshole from back in the cells that totally freaked me out. I mean come on! How much bad luck do I really have?! _

_I held my own for a while, but I just couldn't fight that many on my own and with low chakra and energy to boot. It's the moment in those sappy romance novels when a shining prince on a noble white steed would show up to slay the evil dragon and save the fair maiden. It's a shame that my situation didn't really match up with that stereotype. _

_One white steed, in the form of a strange giant clay bird: check._

_Evil dragon substituted for sadistic psychos with corpse fetishes: check._

_Shining prince actually clad in a dark cloak with murderous intent flashing in his eyes: check._

_Fair maiden…check._

_One out of four is okay, I suppose._

_I wasn't really conscious for much after I saw Sasori turn up, but apparently he and his partner-in-crime Deidara – loud and obnoxious blonde ninja that could easily be Ino's evil guy-twin – swooped in to pick me up, while the blonde detonated a large mass of explosive clay animals onto the idiots that nearly killed me. They died and I got to live. Worked out fine in the end I guess. And how messed up can a person be when they're __**glad**__ that someone else died? _

_Okay, back on topic now…_

_I woke up in the hospital in Suna, alone, but Sasori had left me a note at the desk. It explained everything that had happened and also included his decision regarding my offer of friendship. He accepted! Finally I had my very own totally-mysterious-with-lots-of-baggage-and-anger-issues-but-still-attractive-friend. Some of those qualities are probably seen as problems, but I liked solving problems anyway so they didn't bother me. Besides, the next time we spoke, I planned to grill him for information. Or maybe just start with some simple questions like, ''Do you still need to wash your hair?' Meaningful things like that._

_I still have that letter actually. I must have read it hundreds of times, but it was probably the most sincere that a guy has ever been with me – except for Rock Lee, but he never counts because he's like a puppy dog that won't learn his lesson._

_It was not long after I had returned to Konoha that I saw him again. He visited my village, dressed in a plain black hooded cloak, and at the time I thought nothing of his change in clothing. It never occurred to me to think that since he's a puppet, he wouldn't need to ever change outfits, but thinking on it all now, I don't know why I was so blind to the obvious clues. He was evasive when I asked him things – specific things about what he was doing and who he worked for – and he insisted that we talk in as private a place as possible. I suspected then that he might have been working for en enemy of the Leaf, at the very most a missing nin, but I never guessed that he was part of my country's biggest foes – The Akatsuki._

_The Akatsuki are enemies to everyone, working for the highest bidder and abducting people for their own gain. I don't understand the organisation's end game, but they want the power of the tailed beasts that are sealed in nine individuals. The Kazekage Gaara has the one-tail, Shukaku, and my best friend Naruto has the nine-tails inside him. We know that removal of these beasts kills the hosts, but we don't know how they're doing it or even why. And Sasori turned out to be one those monsters hunting down innocent people to carry out this objective._

_I learned all of this about my new-found friend the hard way, through show-and-tell. _

_Suna was attacked by two Akatsuki members, although no descriptions had been given, and Gaara had been taken. Team Kakashi – that's Naruto, Kakashi-sensei and myself – were sent to find Gaara and hopefully bring him back to his village safely, when I received the bombshell. From Gaara's own sister no less. One of the Akatsuki had been Akasuna no Sasori, the same one I had met only a few weeks prior to that mission. I didn't want to believe it, but we ran into the pair of Akatsuki and I could no longer deny the damning evidence. Sasori was an enemy._

_Now, before you go and spout out some nonsense about how I'm crazy to be weeping for an enemy, let me just say that in the time it had taken my team to arrive on the scene, Sasori and his partner, Deidara – that blonde guy from before, remember? – had come to the decision to __**not**__ take Gaara to their boss for extraction. In fact, Sasori had gone so far to say that he wanted to defect from the Akatsuki, for total immunity, and Deidara agreed with his choice completely. I know. It's surprising right? But they were very convincing, seeing as how Gaara was conscious, well and no longer their captive. Plus, he seemed to believe them both, mostly._

_Nobody complained much after that, simply because Gaara was alive and we all just wanted to sit down for five minutes and __**not**__ rush from point to point with no rest._

_We arrived back at Suna and a long process ensued where Gaara's advisors weren't budging on the 'free-from-all-crimes' deal until both ex-Akatsuki answered some questions and then remained penned in a cramped cell, weapon less, for five days. Sounds pretty simple right? Well I thought so too. I chose to remain in the village while Kakashi and Naruto headed back to Konoha to give in our report and update Tsunade on the current situation. I wanted to be there when Sasori got out of the prison after all. As soon as he did, he'd be a free agent in Suna and I wouldn't feel nearly as guilty about liking him or wanting to be around him then. _

_Deidara would be free too, although at the time I hadn't really gotten to know anything about the blonde to make a good enough assessment. All I really knew was that he and Naruto actually had a fair bit in common with their immaturity and personalities. Although one has a warped sense of art and the other likes waaay too much ramen. I don't think I need to tell you which is which._

_Now, about three days into the five day confinement period, I met a very odd man on the streets. He looked like your average homeless man – dirty, foul-mouthed and penniless. However, he wore clothing that one would associate with a ninja and he didn't actually know how to accept a kind gesture. A homeless guy would sponge as much as possible, but he kept thinking that I wanted something in return. He was totally paranoid. Also, he was very suspicious and odd. His timed appearance in Suna should have set off alarms in my head, but as I have come to realise, I am blinkered when it comes to people. I can't seem to see the truth, because all I choose to see is a person in need: be it emotional or financial. Hidan – the weird-not-homeless-guy – needed money, food and a place to stay. I provided all of those and he gave me some fresh company and a good laugh while I waited the days away._

_Don't get me wrong, I spent some time in the hospital helping the staff there, but during the other hours of the day I made sure Hidan got food and had someone to talk to. He was blunt and a nice change from the locals, but he couldn't compare to my other friends back home…or Sasori._

_Hidan took off on the day that Sasori was due to be released, and I didn't think much on him after I was reunited with my red-headed friend-slash-crush. I felt like everything in my world was finally going to fit into a neat little place, but then I got a shocking piece of information that made me remember reality and all of its cruelties. It turns out that Sasori had a spy-network. And one of his spies was in Orochimaru's ranks. I'm sure you remember me mentioning him before, right? I hate that man. If he had never shown up, so much might have been different for everyone I know and love._

_So, anyway, Sasori mentions this information kind of off-hand when he explains that he has a meeting set up with said contact in five days' time, as though it's not of import that he had __**another**__ secret he didn't feel the need to share until that moment. I guess I wasn't happy when he said it, but I wasn't exactly thinking clearly and my 'doubt-o-meter' was set pretty high at the time. I honestly thought that he was going to tell me everything so he didn't have to lie to me anymore, and in a way he had told me, but I still felt sore from the whole Akatsuki-thing. I took off after screaming at him some pretty hurtful things. I don't know why he put up with me after that – or after any of my other shouting fits._

_I don't know where I ran to, but the next thing I know I'm colliding with another black-cloaked, red-clouded individual. And it was Hidan! My luck with finding Akatsuki is both shockingly great and abysmally poor: I can find them soooo so easily, but I never even realise it._

_A whole long…thing happened with Hidan, myself and Hidan's crazy, money-obsessed partner, and in the end I made a pseudo ally out of Hidan and started making my way back to Konoha with a new acquaintance in tow. I had no idea what went through the crazy Jashinist's mind to come along with me for the journey, but I don't think I really wanted to know anyway. Jashin by the way is Hidan's God and the key figure-head in Hidan's religion. It's a bit complicated and I don't understand the finer details, but it seems to be something that makes him completely immortal and also obsessed with killing people for sacrifices. Yeah, totally not a religion that I want to take up, for sure._

_After a long walk and some pretty random conversations, Hidan and I met back up with Sasori and Deidara. It turned out, Hidan and Kakuzu were tracking Sasori and Deidara to eliminate them and take back the rings that they'd stolen. I guess that Akatsuki member rings are hard to create or something? It didn't matter though, because Hidan wasn't really bothered with any of that and Sasori was just glad that I was alive and in one piece. For the record, so was I._

_There was a little more drama that I don't really want to hash out at the moment, mostly because in the big picture it was just stupid. I should never have doubted Sasori or how much he meant to me. In hindsight, if I had just let go of some of my anger that wasn't even justified I might have had a few more precious moments with Sasori. Some happier memories to look back on fondly. As it is, I have his unsure smiles and his unguarded laughter to remember him by. The way his eyes met mine and I felt like nothing else mattered in the world except us. How safe I felt just being by his side in the end. _

_If I had just had more time…_

_It was barely a few moments after we'd all reunited that those monsters attacked us. I didn't get to say goodbye. And I didn't get to tell Sasori how I felt. How much he meant to me – and still does. And now my world feels like it's shattered into tiny pieces of a glass vase that can't be put back into the correct places anymore. _

_The week's been a blur of misery for me. Even after we'd chased up the lead on Orochimaru's base and found Sasuke again, it didn't even matter to me. Sasuke's a bastard, I know it now, and what I felt for him was truly just a silly little girl's crush. It's nothing like how I feel for Sasori._

_Well, you know everything now. All of my feelings and thoughts are with you. I bet you still think I'm stupid, though. I know the others do. Naruto doesn't know how to behave around me. Ino can't really help because she didn't even meet Sasori. And Kakashi-sensei…he left on a secret mission back to Suna before the dust had even settled after the Akatsuki attack that claimed Sasori's life. At least he hasn't been here looking at me with pity. I couldn't take any more of it._

_It's weird, but I wish I could talk to Deidara about this stuff. He knew Sasori best after all, and he's probably hurting from his death like I am, maybe more. I don't know, to be honest. He was taken by ANBU and presumably locked in a secure facility. I don't know why they did that, seeing as how he should have gotten a pardon from Tsunade well in advance of our arrival to Konoha, but I guess the stuffy old council members don't care? _

_Huh…I'm actually feeling a little more like myself again._

_This 'talking' crap is actually helping me, sort of. At least I'm starting to focus on something other than the horrendous gaping abyss of my soul. Okay, maybe not!_

_Well, I need to move on and start doing things again!_

_First things first! I'm going to find out what they've done with Deidara. _

_Oh, and in case you care, Hidan disappeared in the commotion of the Leaf ninja arriving, the bastard. He said he'd stick around, but I guess he couldn't be bothered. Ah well, I don't need him. I'm strong. I can handle life…almost._

_Thanks for listening to my crazy ramblings, you've been a great help, as usual. I __**knew**__ there was a reason I used to rant about my problems in you. Thank you diary!_

The pinkette finally put down her pen and snapped her much more filled 'secret' diary shut, pushing it as far from her reach across her oak desk as she could. She leant back in her chair and released another mournful sigh. Even after writing all of her experiences down and her feelings on the matter, a deep sadness and guilt continued to eat away at her heart.

'_It did help me, but not by much.'_

Sakura forced her legs to stand, knowing that sitting around and moping wasn't helping at all. If a person wanted to start moving on from the death of someone important to them – not a loved one, not quite, but definitely someone to be treasured – then usually the first step was to accept that they were gone. _'I've certainly done that, now. I know Sasori won't be coming back. Nothing can resurrect the dead.' _

The next step was to try doing something productive, in the hopes that it would ease the grieving party back into a sense of normalcy. The most productive thing the pinkette could think of doing at that precise moment was finding Deidara and, if need be, getting him freed from ANBU custody. Gaara, Suna's Kazekage, had pardoned the former Akatsuki member, so it should be a simple matter of asking Tsunade to enforce the same decision in Konoha.

'_Deidara helped me, even let Gaara go free back in the Sand, so Lady Tsunade __**has**__ to see that he's not like those other monsters that are still in the Akatsuki. He turned on them and fought on Konoha's side in that last battle. She must know that he's not all bad.'_

Sakura's lips twitched ever-so-slightly upwards when she recalled, with a fondness, how alike Deidara and Naruto were. Both blondes bickered together like toddlers, neither one backing down from an argument – even if they were both totally wrong. They were energetic; often giddy when they spoke about something they were passionate about (ramen in Naruto's case and explosions in Deidara's). And strangest of all the similarities: Sakura had always thought of Naruto as her best friend and brother, yet she could also now say that Deidara had fit into that niche too. She'd only recently met him, known him for even less time than Sasori, but the crazy artist felt exactly like an annoying, loveable, kid brother.

If there's one thing Sakura had learnt over the years she spent in Team Seven, it's that you don't abandon your friends, or your family.

'_Don't worry Deidara, I won't let you rot in whatever prison you've been stashed in any longer.'_

Sakura readjusted her leather gloves and stepped away from the table, all melancholy thoughts pushed as far from her thoughts as her diary was on the desk. She pivoted on her left-heel to face the window, fully prepared to exit through it, but the unannounced visitor sat on the ledge almost had her jumping three-feet into the air in shock. Perched on the toes of his feet on the sill sat her former sensei and leader of Team Seven, Kakashi Hatake, looking as calm and as amiable ever – even though Sakura herself was steadily freaking out from her near panic attack.

* * *

The silver-haired nin assessed her dishevelled appearance – from her still red and puffy eyes (a sign of recently crying, no doubt), to the scraggly mess of hair atop her head, to the very clear signs of unrest and distress upon her face (dark circles) – and deduced that the news he was about to divulge would either shock Sakura's mind so much that couldn't comprehend what he said, or that the blatant worries etched upon her countenance would at last begin to fade and some joy might return to her life. Kakashi understood what Sakura must have been going through and he could certainly empathise. He had lost loved ones and team mates over the years too. Such was their way of life. But he knew that she needed to move passed her pain. The easiest way to jump-start this was to simply tell her what he came to say.

With a nervous smile gracing his face (although the only visible sign of this was the crinkling of his right eye and the way he habitually rubbed the back of his head, ruffling his fluffy hair), he attempted to get the words out, "Yo Sakura, I'm glad I caught you at home," he paused, stalling some more, still unsure how she'd respond, but pushed on at last, "Tsunade-sama sent me to retrieve you. She has news that you might be interested in. It's about Sasori-!"

Sakura latched onto the name, and then **literally** latched onto Kakashi's jonin vest, tugging him closer, very nearly pulling him off the window sill and onto the floor.

"What about Sasori?! What could she possibly tell me that I don't already know? He's dead Kakashi-sensei, or did you not notice?!"

Tears trailed relentlessly down the bubble gum-haired girl's face, tracing lines that hadn't quite faded from her last round of crying. Kakashi knew he had to tell her the rest or he feared she wouldn't be able to hear what he said for much longer, trapped once more in grief. Whatever force had willed the teen to stand and move with a resolute determination, had faded the more he remained in her presence. He couldn't let his student remain in this seemingly permanent, reclusive state.

"Sakura calm down." Her hands twitched around the collar of his vest and her face screwed up as if she wanted to yell at him some more, but he continued before she could get the chance, "He's alive Sakura. Sasori's alive again."

Her grip, which had tightened briefly with her shock, all at once slackened and released as Sakura stepped once, twice, three times away from Kakashi. The tears were still falling and now she was trembling, too. Her skin had paled – even more so than normal – and her eyes weren't able to focus on any one thing, constantly moving from Kakashi to the book that lay closed on her wooden desk and finally the door off to her right.

It was clear to Kakashi that she didn't fully grasp what he'd said, so he tried to explain, make her understand, "You remember Lady Chiyo from Suna? Well, turns out she knew of a way to revive the dead, so she used this secret technique to resurrect Sasori. He's being seen to by Shizune and the Hokage right now," the shock started to dissipate from her eyes, clarity once more being restored, "He asked for you Sakura. It was about the only thing he said when he was conscious," he held out his gloved hand, "Come with me Sakura and see for yourself."

Kakashi extended his hand closer to his former student and after a moment's hesitation, she firmly clasped it with her own gloved one.

"Take me to him, Kakashi-sensei."

* * *

Aaaaand we're done with chapter one. I never thought I'd get this started again, but here we are. I hope you guys enjoyed it and will stick with me as I try my best to complete something I began _years_ ago. Please leave any feedback if you can, because I would like to know your thoughts. Oh, and it won't stay mopey and sad for long in this, of that I am sure :).


	2. Chapter 2

Hey, hello everyone! *shifts nervously and cowers behind laptop* It's been an age, right? Well, I'm super sorry about leaving my lovely readers in the lurch, but as you can see...I've updated! Yes, it's been about a year since I posted the redone first chapter, but I've got chapter three almost done and ready to go - hopefully tonight actually, to make up for nothing at all for months.

I believe I've found all the errors before I posted this, but feel free to point any grammar mistakes or spelling errors out to me in a review. I know I'm not perfect.

Again, I'm truly sorry for not writing anything for this for a long time, but I think I'm finally out of my funk. My writing funk, anyway. The drawing one is still fully active *glares at art things*.

**Disclaimer:** If I owned _Naruto_, I'd have made a killing off of the gaming merchandise alone. But I'm skint, so clearly it's not mine. I'm merely borrowing the characters - and the series - to completely alter the reality of everyone to suit my needs.

* * *

**Chapter Two**

One Week Previously…

Much to the silver-haired jonin's disbelief, ANBU surrounded Deidara and carted him off for questioning – interrogation – without even hearing the ex-Akatsuki out. Kakashi had wanted to voice his thoughts, but the Hokage's hands had been tied regarding Deidara's status, so the copy-nin could do nothing himself. He only hoped that the loud-mouthed blonde would hold out until Tsunade could convince the council to change their minds, thereby securing his release. He couldn't keep dwelling on Deidara though, not when there were more pressing matters to deal with.

His sharingan still active, he scanned the dense foliage around the clearing for signs of the fleeing Akatsuki duo, but they were long gone after the Leaf ninja converged on the area. Relief flitted across his face, for while he knew that Konoha's numbers were greater than their enemies', he wasn't so sure that they would emerge from such a fight unscathed. Many members from that criminal group were dangerous S-class ninja, with unknown abilities and weaknesses – if indeed, they had any weaknesses.

Kakashi raised his left hand up to his forehead to move his ninja band down over his sharingan eye, when a slight movement from the farthest bushes drew his attention and gave him pause. None of the other ninja had noticed the rustling in the hedges, so Kakashi – with his Sharingan eye still in use – crept silently towards the suspicious spot. There was every chance that an animal had hidden out of sight to stay safe, but the copy-nin's gut found it more likely to be an enemy hiding in ambush.

Just as he reached the edge of the clearing, the rustling ceased and a grey-haired figure dashed away from the area. He had moved so fast that at first Kakashi was too surprised to pursue the ninja, but his still-active Sharingan accurately tracked the man's movements. The silver-haired Jonin set off to follow the suspiciously fleeing stranger, until his toes snagged on something that was bunched on the floor. The stumble was all the possible – probable – enemy needed to disappear completely from view, and so Kakashi reluctantly relented.

'_I guess my curiosity won't be sated today. I hope this mistake doesn't come back to haunt me.'_

Deciding to put the stranger from his mind, Kakashi's eyes flicked down to the ground and his eyebrows rose to his hairline when he saw just what had foiled his pursuit. Lying at his feet were two rather curious objects: a large, two-handed scythe sporting three blades of differing sizes; and an Akatsuki robe scrunched up in a messy bundle. Both must have belonged to the ninja that had just fled which further solidified Kakashi's belief that he had just lost sight of an enemy.

'_Not just any enemy. An Akatsuki.'_

Protocol demanded that the jonin turn over both items for further study, but he was unsure. If that man **had** been an Akatsuki member, why leave the cloak behind? In Kakashi's experiences with that group of criminals, he found that they wore their emblematic robes with pride and they definitely wouldn't waste time removing it or dumping it. Even more odd, though, was the apparently abandoned weapon.

'_Maybe he was trying to retrieve the items, but I scared him off?'_

It didn't seem likely that an Akatsuki would flee without the damning items that Kakashi had found. All ninja knew that a piece of clothing and a weapon that was as unique as this one could easily be traced to the source. Not many dealers or blacksmiths sold or made scythes with three blades equipped on them.

'_Either this guy is really stupid, or he left these here for a reason.'_

Kakashi flicked his sharp gaze back to the clearing, but the other ninja were still cleaning up the mess – _'Are they gathering pieces of Sasori's puppet body?'_ – so his actions had yet to be noticed. Knowing he had mere minutes before someone decided to check on him, the copy-ninja removed an empty scroll from his tool pouch and hastily, but carefully, unrolled it upon the forest floor next to the objects. Next, he folded the Akatsuki cloak into as small a bundle as he could and placed it atop one of the pre-prepared seals on the scroll. He also moved the scythe onto a second seal, as much as possible due to the weapon's size.

'_Okay, here goes nothing.'_

Kakashi performed the hand signs to activate the sealing scroll and both objects were quickly covered in the ink from the parchment, before disappearing without a trace. The two seals glowed green briefly to confirm that the technique had worked, while in the centre of each glyph now resided kanji to identify what had been stored: 'weapon' for one and 'clothing' for the other.

'_That'll buy me some time until I can figure out what actually happened here. Once I get the whole story, I'll tell the Hokage about this unknown player. I don't know if he was fighting against Sakura or not, but I doubt she's ready to tell me anything yet.'_

He turned back towards his two students, one trying to comfort the other, and silently hoped it wouldn't take too long before she came back to herself again.

* * *

Present Day…

"Sakura, perhaps you should…make yourself more presentable before we go..?" The hesitance was clear in her sensei's voice as he suggested this, for Sakura's wrath could be truly terrifying, but he just knew that she would hate herself if she went outside looking as drained as she did.

The pinkette stole a glance down at her attire, ran a hand through her untamed hair, and flushed briefly when the realisation hit her that Kakashi was right. She truly did look a mess. There was no way that she'd see Sasori – _'I can't believe he's alive, I must be dreaming or under some kind of Genjutsu'_ – if she looked like something from a horror flick.

"Give me ten minutes, Kakashi-sensei," Sakura mumbled, before darting into her bathroom and bolting it so she could get ready undisturbed.

Tearing off her clothes, Sakura dove under the shower head and twisted it on full-blast, washing days of dirt and grease from her skin and hair. Next she snatched her rose-scented shampoo from her shower caddy and applied a generous amount to her scalp to scrub the grime and stink out. Satisfied with her efforts, she switched the shower off and jumped out, grabbing a towel and drying as quickly as the law of physics would allow.

'_It's times like these that I wish I knew some fire Ninjutsu. My hair is like a sponge when it comes to water.'_

Knowing that there just wouldn't be time to pick out some fresh clothing, Sakura grabbed her used ones from the bathroom floor and put them back on. Her hair was still almost completely sopping wet, but there was very little she could do about that anyway. She stole a glance in the mirror to check that it was at least lying flat on her head, rather than flying about everywhere, and was stunned at how ill her face looked. Her cheeks had lost much of their colour and her eyes appeared almost ghoulish, with deep bags underneath them.

'_How could I let myself get like this?'_

A soft knocking forced Sakura to tear her eyes away from the stranger staring back at her, and Kakashi's calm voice filtered through the wooden door, "Everything alright in there, Sakura? It's been fifteen minutes already and the Hokage might be wondering what's keeping us."

The last thing Sakura wanted to do was worry Kakashi, so she turned back to her reflection and pasted on a smile until it felt real, then unbolted the door and pulled it open.

The silver-haired jonin blinked a few times when he noticed her changed demeanour, then his eye crinkled into a crescent to signal he was smiling too as he said, "You look like you're feeling better, Sakura. Shall we go?"

The smile Sakura wore settled on her face more comfortably when she remembered that they would be leaving to go and see Sasori. A Sasori that was no longer dead, and had been asking for her and her alone.

"Yes, Kakashi-sensei, let's go."

It was barely midday when the jonin and the chunin made their way to the Konoha General Hospital, which was situated mere minutes from Sakura's small apartment complex. As usual, for a Tuesday, the hospital had a steady stream of patients flowing from the waiting room to the individual clinic rooms to receive treatments and advice. Medical staff and medic-nins flitted along the sterile corridors, clipboards and other paraphernalia clutched tightly in their hands as they made their rounds. Kakashi had no idea how anyone could enjoy working in such a profession. It looked like disorganised chaos to him, but for some reason the pink-haired chunin following along at his side loved coming here to work when not on field missions.

'_Or rather, she used to before this week. Hopefully after today she'll start to return to her old self again.'_

The duo turned down a corridor that was labelled with red signs to indicate 'Secure Ward 2' and entered the double doors that separated this part of the hospital from the more public areas. All of the rooms at this end were for prisoners being treated or dangerous patients that might react violently to the general populace. Naturally, even a former Akatsuki member would fall into this category when he was still considered hostile to most nations in the shinobi world.

The doors throughout this ward were all sealed with protective wards to prevent access unless you were ANBU or the Hokage herself. There weren't currently any other patients within these walls, but Kakashi knew from memory that the first secure ward, the less closed off one, housed at least one person that the elders in the Leaf felt belonged there – but Kakashi personally disagreed with their opinions.

'_Hopefully he won't be stuck under sedation for much longer. No doubt he'll be pissed when he gets out, though. I am __**not**__ looking forward to __**that**__ conversation.'_

The copy-nin quirked a brow in his former student's direction when he took in her pensive expression, "You're being awfully quiet, Sakura. I'd have thought you'd have more questions before we get there."

"Oh believe me, Kakashi-sensei, I do. I just don't know where to begin." Sakura's minty eyes flicked over to fix Kakashi with a glare that would normally force grown men to cower in fear, but it was only a brief flare of the old Sakura, gone before it could settle in place. A weary sigh past her lips and she focused on her feet once more as she went on, "I want to believe so badly that you're being honest with me, but I can't until I see him, you know?"

Kakashi felt confusion course through him at her words, but he merely hummed in agreement to her comment. He couldn't reassure her any more than he already had, but he was a little bit offended that she didn't trust his word when he told her that Sasori was alive once more. If proof was what she required, then that was what she would get. When the questions started, he would answer them as best as he could.

"Here we are," the silver-haired jonin announced, gesturing casually to the only unsealed door at the end of the long hallway, "Just don't be too surprised if he's blunt with you Sakura, he wasn't in the best of moods when I left to go get you."

The young teen swallowed and somehow kept her composure as she approached the steel door, but her twitching fingers told of how nervous she truly was. With a brief glance at her former sensei, who only nodded in encouragement back at her, Sakura raised her right hand to the door handle and turned it down. The door clicked open and she pushed it inwards…

* * *

Fifteen Minutes Ago…

"You really need to stop fidgeting! We still have more tests to run if we're to understand exactly what was done to you."

Sasori shot a glare at the brown-haired woman as she tried, for what felt like the millionth time, to examine his heart container that was now completely functional once more. Her chakra infused hands approached his body and he tensed up, but she pressed onwards and began her diagnostic scan, recording notes on a chart every few minutes. He didn't appreciate being scrutinised like this, especially when he himself was still trying to process how he could go from dying, to returning to the living world in his puppet body like nothing had happened.

Well, not completely nothing.

He looked to his right, where his grandmother's lifeless body lay on the bed. The blonde woman – she was the Hokage, he reminded himself – had just finished checking Chiyo to identify what the old woman had done. She explained to them that all signs pointed to Chiyo giving her life to restore his own, although it was still only in his puppet body and not a real one, using some sort of forbidden jutsu. She herself had never seen the like, but she **had** heard rumours that Suna were seen experimenting with such techniques not too long after the war between their two nations. The tests were never finished, so she had heard, but clearly Sasori was proof that Chiyo had achieved results.

The puppet master didn't know how to feel about his estranged grandmother sacrificing her own life for him. They'd never parted on the best of terms when he was human, and he hadn't really spoken to her when he returned to Suna in recent days. They'd never gotten closure for anything. And now he never would.

The brunette's hands finally pulled away from him and Sasori relaxed his posture in the chair he'd awoken in. He'd barely been back in the living world – only an hour, they had informed him – and he was anxious to leave this place and find Sakura. Patience, after all, had never been a virtue of his.

"Well, Tsunade-sama, his vitals – what I could find anyway – seem to be fine and there's no damage on any of his…limbs," she looked his body over with disdain and Sasori wanted to break something then, "I don't know how he lived like this before, but Elder Chiyo's technique seems to have repaired him completely. There's nothing we need to do for him here, my lady."

"Excellent!" The grin that the busty blonde sent Sasori made him nervous, although he had no experience with this woman's mannerisms, so he couldn't explain the anxiety he suddenly felt.

She moved away from Chiyo's bedside and halted when she was standing a foot from his chair, "Now then, Akasuna no Sasori, you're going to answer some questions for me. If I'm satisfied with your answers, I'll clear you to go, sound good?"

Sasori gave no thought to this when he flatly stated, "I'm not going to answer anything for you until I see Sakura Haruno. Hatake **is** going to bring her here, correct?"

The Hokage's grin slipped away and she took a menacing step closer, completely invading his bubble and snarled, "Listen to me, you brat. You're technically our prisoner here until I say otherwise, so why don't you quit with the attitude and co-operate?"

The red-head was about to retort with another smart comment, when all three ninjas heard the door click open and they turned to stare curiously as it swung slowly inwards. The blonde moved away from Sasori, the brunette following, when a pink-haired blur darted into the room and collided with Sasori's chest, nearly tipping over his chair in the process.

"S-Sakura?"

"I can't believe you're really here," she started crying into his chest and Sasori couldn't really process what was happening until her arms snaked around his waist and she clung to him even tighter. If he'd needed breath he very much doubted that he would get any, she was crushing him so tightly.

Eventually, Sasori's mind went back to moments when he was a little boy and his parents would comfort him when he cried. His arms lifted from their slack position at his sides and encircled her back, rubbing it up and down until he sobs petered out and finally stopped. The pinkette pulled back a little bit, even though she was still practically sat in Sasori's lap on the chair, and the puppet master finally got to take in her appearance.

Apart from the obvious redness from her crying, Sakura seemed unharmed from the events of that battle – _'was it really only a week ago?'_ Yet she looked thinner than he remembered and her eyes had a caged look about them, as though she had had very little sleep and far too much stress. Was she ill?

She was smiling through her tears, though, so whatever had been plaguing the fifteen year old had probably ended now. At least, Sasori hoped so.

Her beautiful – _'yes, they __**are**__ beautiful'_ – pastel green eyes met his brown and Sasori found he couldn't look away from them. She reached out with a gloveless hand and prodded his cheek, before moving it up to gently tug at some of his hair, as though testing to make sure that he wasn't a figment or hallucination.

"You're really back," her voice held true wonderment in its tone and Sasori felt relief that she was happy to see him, "I thought I'd never see you again."

More tears began to trail from her eyes and without even pausing to think, Sasori moved his right-hand from her back to catch them as they fell. He gently wiped the rest of the tears from her cheeks and tried to find words to ease her pain, "I'm not going to leave you again, Sakura. I swear it," he attempted a smile, although he was sure it came out as more of a smirk as he was still very un-practiced at the former facial expression, "After all, my art is eternal and so am I."

That seemed to get a small giggle from pink-haired ninja, "You've still got that big head of yours, I see."

His eyes widened fractionally, "My head is **not** that big, I'll have you know. It is perfectly symmetrical to my body in every way."

"Uh-huh. Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Sasori."

Teasing, that was what they were doing. Something he had not expected to ever do. Not after dying, that was for sure. For just this moment, he felt light inside. Unburdened. There was true joy on Sakura's face now, no sign of the tears at all. He would never tire of seeing her so full of life. It was greater than any of his 'true' art. If he could freeze any moment in his mind for eternity, this would the one he'd choose.

'_I won't waste this second chance, Grandmother. I'll do things right this time.' _

With only a moment's hesitation, Sasori pressed forwards and his lips captured Sakura's.


	3. Chapter 3

Hello all! Thanks for the great response to the last chapter. I'm glad that people are still sticking with me and I hope I don't disappoint you with this chapter. I felt that I need to address what's been happening with at least one of the two other Akatsuki characters that were the forefront of the second story. We'll get little snippets here and there after this one that explain more of what happened, but for now this is what I'll give you. Next chapter will go back to our favourite pair and you'll also see what happened to the final Akatsuki in our tale, plus you'll see Naruto and some others start to make appearances. Hopefully I did these characters justice, because it's been a while since I've written for one of them and the other I'm kind of winging it with.

The chapter's long, but I couldn't break it down any more - I didn't want to. Don't expect them to remain at consistent lengths, because I will only write what I feel needs to be written. Also, the next update will be in about a week, because I had forced everyone to wait so long and I felt evil for doing so.

**Disclaimer:** If I owned_ Naruto_, I'd have made a killing off of the gaming merchandise alone. But I'm skint, so it's clearly not mine. I'm merely borrowing the characters - and the series - to completely alter the reality of everyone to suit my needs.

**Chapter Three**

Six Days Previously…

"Kakashi, I know that Sakura is grieving right now, but we still have to ascertain the level of threat that the Akatsuki could pose to us now with one former member in our custody and another one dead. Will they come after the village to retaliate? Will they come for their missing team member?"

Kakashi sighed and tore his gaze from the hospital room, where Sakura Haruno was staying to recover – both physically and mentally – from the battle the evening before. He understood what Tsunade wanted to know, but he didn't want to leave when he knew that Sakura was in no fit state to be alone. Naruto and all of her former class mates were doing everything they could to get her to talk and cheer up, but they didn't truly understand how she felt. On top of that, the elders – especially Danzou – were pushing to get her to talk about what had happened. They wanted as much information as they could get on everything that had occurred between Sakura and the Akatsuki members. So far, Tsunade had kept them away from her by telling them to question their 'captive', Deidara, but it was only a matter of time before even she had to relent and allow them to move onto Sakura.

So now, the Hokage was asking Kakashi to look into matters by leaving the village and going to the Sand village, where all of this really began. He could ask Gaara if they had any information, because they **had** held both Sasori and Deidara in their village for five days straight. All relevant Akatsuki intelligence had gone through Suna first and Konoha had yet to learn what they knew. It would take Kakashi six days to get to the Sand Village, learn what he could, and return to the Leaf. In that time, Danzou and his thugs could easily get what they wanted from Sakura, doing whatever they wanted to her in the process. Unless Tsunade stepped up and stopped them herself.

"If I go, Hokage-sama, you have to swear that nobody will bother Sakura until I get back. She's not ready to talk yet, obviously, and I doubt she'd even have anything useful that ANBU could use against the enemy."

Tsunade grimaced, for she knew that the copy-nin was right, as usual, "That's just what I told the elders, but they wouldn't listen. I'll see if I can get her to at least…write down what she can remember. It'll hold them off, I suppose. But Kakashi," here her eyes took on an amused glint, "if you ever dare try to make a deal with me again, I'll personally make sure you **never** see another one of those awful books you like so much. **I'm** the Hokage here, remember that."

Kakashi paled and held his hands up in surrender, "How could I ever forget that, Hokage-sama?"

"See that you don't." Her smirk faded and she looked at her pupil's room with a deep sadness etched into her features, "Don't worry about her so much, Kakashi. She'll be fine for a few days. Just get that information for us."

He nodded, "I will."

The Jonin turned to go, but a sudden thought crept into the forefront of his mind and he asked, "What should I tell them about Sasori?"

The Hokage blinked, unsure why it should matter so much, "Just tell them that he died. What more needs to be said?"

Kakashi raised his hand to rub the back of his head, already feeling like this trip of his was going to get complicated, "Well, there is his grandmother to consider. She'd want to know what happened, after all."

"Oh." Surprise flit across her face for a moment, not having expected that at all. After a beat she said, "Let her know what she wants to know, I suppose. Tell her we have his…remains, if she wishes to claim them. And tell her," here she sighed, revealing her true age for the briefest of moments, "tell her that we are sorry we couldn't save him."

"Of course."

Kakashi waved once, then 'poofed' out of the hospital corridor, reappearing in his apartment seconds later.

'_Better stock up before I leave then.'_

He grabbed a tool bag and placed a few dozen soldier pills into it, along with some spare kunai and exploding tags – should things get…tricky. He also filled a small backpack with sleeping gear, tinder and flint, and small food rations. Lastly, he grabbed six bottles of frozen water from his freezer, because he always found that ice lasted longer than water when he travelled. He had quirks, he'd admit that much.

He passed his eyes over his box room one more time, but his eye kept settling on his nightstand. There was a copy of his favourite 'Icha Icha' book sat on it, which naturally he would take with him, but in the top drawer was something else that had been weighing on his mind. He walked towards the small piece of furniture and lifted the book off, sliding that into his vest pocket to read later. After flicking his eyes over his room to check nobody was watching, Kakashi tugged open the drawer and pulled out the scroll he had hidden yesterday.

The scroll containing two very curious, important items: a peculiar scythe he had still not traced, and an Akatsuki robe. He was still no closer to identifying the owner of both objects, but perhaps if he took them with him he might discover who they belonged to, and why they were left behind. At the very least, taking them with him would ensure that nobody…snooping about would find them.

'I don't trust Danzou, or his people. One of them could easily search this place if they believed that it held anything they could use to get to Sakura.'

Kakashi just hoped that Tsunade could indeed get Danzou and the others to back off until he returned.

* * *

Kakashi Hatake overheard a commotion in the streets as he made his way out of Konoha, one that sounded like it involved Naruto. He didn't have time to break up one of the blonde's many fights, so he only hoped that someone mature could resolve the matter before more buildings were lost in the scuffle. For someone who claimed to want to be Hokage one day, he sure knew how to wreck and endanger lives that would one day fall under his care. Naruto would truly never grow up.

Once he entered the forest just outside the village boundaries, the Jonin took off at a sprint in order to make good time. He knew that he would need to pace himself, having made this journey many times over the years, but hopefully the pills he brought along would help keep his stamina and chakra up for long enough to cut the time down.

He passed the clearing that now sported an impressive crater and pushed on further through the trees. It was hard to believe that they had been so close to the village, yet it was not enough to protect anyone from the Akatsuki's evil. If he and Naruto had arrived a few minutes sooner, things might have been different. There was still no word on who the strange new Akatsuki member was. Kakashi had seen the other one in the bingo book before. He was Kakuzu, an alleged immortal who murdered their first Hokage, and who possessed powerful techniques from all of his victims. The copy ninja never did believe the rumours that this monster of a man couldn't be killed, for as far as he could tell: if something bled, it could die.

'_And I know I saw him bleed before he took off with the other one.'_

The sun was almost at its highest point, signalling that it was noon, when Kakashi felt a presence following him. Whoever they were, they were particularly stealthy, staying at least one hundred feet away from him and only making contact with the ground when they absolutely needed to. Yet, they weren't very graceful when they **did** touch the earth, because he could hear their shoes snapping twigs every-so-often. Not enough that an amateur ninja would notice, but Kakashi was no beginner at this game. His senses had always been above average, even before he received his Sharingan eye.

'_Whoever they are, they're about to get a little surprise.'_

The silver-haired Jonin made a quick sign and switched places with a stick a few yards away, briefly placing an illusion over it to make his pursuer think he was still on the move. Once his copy had moved onwards, Kakashi kept low behind a bush and waited until his stalker caught up. Sure enough, his tail didn't notice the switch, and from behind a tree leapt a man roughly the same height and build as the copy-nin was, but his hair was definitely grey instead of silver, and cropped closer to his head. There was a flash of light reflecting from something around the man's neck, which Kakashi noted was some kind of necklace, and the man carried a very sharp knife in his hand.

Not wanting the newcomer to get too far, Kakashi leapt from his cover and kicked the man out of the air, hitting him squarely in the jaw as he did so. The impact sent the knife-brandishing man tumbling towards the ground, thanks to the strength of the hit and gravity's own laws catching up with him. He hit with an almighty 'crunch' and the copy-nin briefly winced, because that must have hurt, and landed a few metres from his target, ready for whatever the man tried when he got up. For some reason, Kakashi could swear he'd seen this person before. The hair colour, more than anything, seemed to jump out at him, but he couldn't place why just yet.

The stranger pushed himself off the ground, cussing up a storm and clutching his jaw so tightly in place that for just a moment Kakashi thought he might be trying to keep it attached. The Jonin didn't think he'd hit him hard enough to do **that**, but you could never be sure with kicks to the face.

"You want to tell me why you've been following me now?"

"Who says I'm following you, asshole?!"

Apparently his jaw wasn't in quite as much pain as he'd been led to believe, for him to shout so loudly. Kakashi wasn't fooled by his poor attempt to deflect his question, though. He recalled where he'd seen this man before, now. It was in the clearing where the Akatsuki had been fighting Sakura, yesterday, but he'd only been able to catch a glimpse of his retreating back before he vanished. So he knew, without doubt, that this man standing in front of him was an Akatsuki member.

His stalker continued to rant about being 'unjustly assaulted', but the copy-nin wasn't even listening anymore. Instead, he scanned his foes' attire to get a more accurate picture of who he could be.

Aside from his shortly-cropped, grey hair that tapered just before his shoulders, the man had an unusual eye colour. They were purple, or perhaps…magenta? Either choice still made for a unique image. Not many people could say they'd met someone with colouring quite like this man's. The glint of metal Kakashi had spied earlier came from the pendant around his neck. It had an odd symbol attached to the chain, a sort of upside-down triangle in a circle. The jonin didn't know if it meant anything or not, but he'd definitely memorise it to research later. The man wore only the standard black trousers of a ninja, but his footwear was the same style as the other Akatsuki members. He also had green nail varnish on the tips of his fingers and toes – yet another piece of information that confirmed he was part of that group.

'_It's not every day that I can prove someone's part of an evil organisation based on cosmetics. Why __**do**__ they insist on members painting their nails? Is it some kind of initiation?'_

He couldn't see anything that indicated which Hidden Village this man had defected from, but Kakashi decided that in the grand scheme of things, it hardly mattered. It probably wouldn't be too hard to fill in the blanks, because so far this guy appeared to be a far cry from your conventional ninja-type. If anything, Kakashi almost doubted that he **was** part of the nefarious organisation bent on world domination – or whatever they were after.

'_He's an oddball, alright.'_

It didn't look like the angry ranting was going to end in the near future, so Kakashi interrupted before the grey-haired man could continue his monologue, "I know you're an Akatsuki, so why don't you quit the act and tell me what you want with me."

The man bristled at the statement, as though what the silver-haired jonin had called him was an insult. He raised his razor-sharp knife and gestured towards Kakashi with it, "I'm not with those bastards. I just want my scythe back! So you can either give it to me and then walk away, or I can take it from your bleeding corpse after I offer you to Lord Jashin. It's your choice, asshole."

The manic glint in his magenta – _'definitely magenta'_ – eyes told Kakashi exactly which option the loud-mouth would prefer, so the copy-ninja opted for none of the above. With a flick of his wrist, Kakashi slipped a Kunai out of his tool pouch and hurled it at the other man. His foe easily parried the smaller knife with his more deadly looking weapon, but the jonin never intended to hit him. Instead, he substituted behind the grey-haired man and seized him in a choke-hold from behind.

The 'battle' ended before it even began and Kakashi simply waited for his opponent to fall unconscious when his oxygen ran out.

Except that he hadn't yet.

He was still squirming around, trying to break Kakashi's hold, and he didn't appear to be tiring at all.

'What's this guy's deal?'

Kakashi felt the man shift slightly, but the copy-nin released his hold and flipped backwards before the business end of that curved blade made contact with his flesh. The laid back jonin didn't doubt that that knife would leave very messy wounds behind.

The man turned around to face Kakashi, but any amusement that had been present on his face had vanished. "You think you can grab me and get away with it, you bastard?! I'll enjoy sending you to Lord Jashin now!"

'_Great, he's back to raving like a madman again. And who's this Jashin he keeps talking about?'_

Kakashi fully expected the incensed ninja to charge him, or at the very least use a technique of some sort – _'I'm starting to doubt that the Akatsuki __**ever**__ had this one in their ranks.'_ – but to the silver-haired jonin's surprise he drove his blade into his left forearm. Deeply enough that blood began to drip at an alarming rate from the wound and collect in a steadily growing puddle on the forest floor. Next, he shifted so his left foot stepped into the blood and then he began to slide his foot along the floor, marking out a strange symbol in the process.

A symbol that matched up perfectly with the one around the man's neck.

'_He __**is**__ performing a technique, although it's not one I've ever seen or heard of before. Whatever he's doing, I can't let him continue. I need him alive to question him, but I also don't want to delay any longer than necessary.'_

Kakashi raised his left hand and uncovered his Sharingan eye, sensing that he'd need full use of his vision to deal with this particular person quickly, and carefully. There was one jutsu that the jonin could use to swing the situation into his favour and hopefully debilitate his opponent, so he raised his arms and cast it, "Water Style: Hidden Mist Jutsu."

Within seconds the surrounding forest became enshrouded in a thick blanket of mist, completely obscuring both ninjas – and everything else – from sight. Kakashi realised that his eyes would be useless now, but so would the other man's eyes. However, being a skilled ninja from the Leaf village, Kakashi had perfected relying on his other main senses when his eyes would be unnecessary. He wasn't a genuine blood hound like members of the Inuzuka clan, but he could listen and smell better than most other people. Following the sickly sweet stench of blood was particularly easy for someone with Kakashi Hatake's skill set.

So he could tell immediately that the other ninja had moved further into the trees – probably an accident because he suspected this man wasn't as bright as an S-Class ninja ought to be. Sure enough, muttered curses started to drift out of the dense foliage, followed by definite sounds of someone tripping and falling – often.

'_This guy's really…odd.'_

He glanced back to where the aroma of copper was strongest – the painted glyph on the floor – and silently moved closer to that spot. He had a couple more minutes before the jutsu dispelled in order to erase the mark, thereby hopefully ceasing his enemy's plan of attack. This was all based on the assumption that what his foe had done would hurt him, because so far Kakashi had no way of knowing whether the man was crazy or secretly very powerful.

Probably more of the former than the latter, but he wasn't willing to take any chances.

Luckily, the area was close by and Kakashi gave the symbol a quick glance with his Sharingan eye to record for later – the mist was starting to fade, making this task both relatively simpler, but also forcing Kakashi to want a little more haste. Then he kicked dirt over the closest point of the circle, and smudged it thoroughly until it was no longer connected to the rest of it. Task completed, the silver-haired jonin focussed his full attention on the irate man who was _still_ stumbling about in the trees.

'_I almost feel sorry for him. Well, time to end this and get some answers. I need to get to Suna quickly.'_

Keeping to the thicker areas of mist, Kakashi crept up to the spot where he could hear his enemy grumbling and complaining. He removed from his tool pouch a single senbon needle, coated in a sleeping agent, a useful item that he'd never bothered to test before – the need just hadn't arose for it until now. Just behind the next tree, Kakashi could see the blurry outline of the man's shoulders. Before the mist could fade, Kakashi flicked the needle at the man's throat, where it embedded itself snugly into his skin. The effect was immediate – which surprised Kakashi, because he was a little worried that this man might be immune to sleeping drugs – and the man slumped forwards and crashed onto the ground before he could even raise his hand to remove the needle.

Releasing a sigh of relief, Kakashi approached the now unconscious man who became clearer now that the jutsu was finished. A light snoring emitted from the man's mouth and the copy-ninja smirked at how unprofessional that was for a ninja. Even though practically everything this man had done and said screamed amateur.

'_I'll just tie him up and then when he wakes, I'll get the truth from him.'_

* * *

One hour later…

Hidan awoke to a painful pinching around his arms, torso and legs. He recognised the feeling – he'd been tied up. His back was aching and something rough was scraping his skin whenever he breathed or twitched too much. So, he was tied to a tree. Great.

'_Where's the bastard that did this to me? I'll make him regret ever kicking me in the face!'_

He blinked his eyes open slowly, aware that his senses were still a little groggy after whatever it was that had drugged him. It had to be something pretty powerful, because his tolerance to all things medicinal had improved thanks to his faith in Jashinism. Around him was the same forest and dirt road that he'd been in when that silver-haired 'poser' had ambushed him. Clearly, Hidan was slipping if he had allowed some nobody to fool him so easily. Next time, he would just have to kill first and talk later. Less chances of being tied up that way.

"Ah, you're awake at last. I was beginning to wonder if I'd killed you by mistake. I don't use sleeping senbon very often," spoke a calm, bored voice from just to Hidan's right. He turned his head and saw the smug Leaf ninja calmly leant against a tree and reading one of those dirty books that all the other members found so interesting.

'_Especially that fish-freak.'_

The man closed the book and placed it in a pocket on his vest, before pushing off of the tree and striding slowly towards Hidan's location. He stopped a foot from him and the air of calm disappeared, leaving a stern and authoritative person behind. He reached behind his back and removed a small backpack, placing it on the forest floor and rifling through it. Hidan shifted nervously, wondering if this was going to be the start of a very messy torturing session – he could maim himself just fine, but other people doing it was another thing altogether. Instead of some new kind of drug or interrogation device, the man withdrew a rolled up scroll and set it carefully on the floor between them.

"Is this supposed to scare me? I enjoy pain so give it your best shot!"

He wasn't being completely honest, he might be a little concerned, but he had to save face.

'_No floppy-haired bastard is gonna intimidate me!'_

"It's not meant to scare you at all, actually. You see," here he unrolled the scroll, revealing two seals – one indicating 'weapon', the other 'clothing'. He performed a simple seal with his hands and the seals unlocked in a 'poof!' of smoke. Surprise lit up Hidan's face when he gazed upon his scythe once more, but annoyance took root firmly when he also saw that his Akatsuki cloak had appeared too. The man quirked a brow at both reactions, causing Hidan to mentally curse his stupidity for falling into his trap, then his voice turned smug when he said, "Ah, so they **are** yours after all. I thought as much, but now you've proven to me that my hunch was correct."

The Jashinist glared and shook his head in denial, "I proved nothing, asshole. I have no idea what these things are. Now fuck off."

"Sorry, but I don't buy it. So, shall we start again? Who are you?" Even without the Sharingan eye present, Hidan swore that this man was boring holes into his mind with his single onyx eye.

'_Just like that Uchiha bastard back with the others!'_

"Like I'm gonna tell you anything, dickhead."

A frustrated sigh passed the man's lips, but he persevered and pushed onwards with his questions, "At least explain to me why you left these behind after the battle yesterday. Were you fighting with those other two Akatsuki, or against them?"

'_Deny, deny, deny.'_

"I don't know what you're talking about. I wasn't at any battle and I don't know what an Akatsuki is. So untie my ropes and I might forget I ever saw you, asshole."

"Look, we both know you're lying here. So just be honest with me. I don't have all day."

Apparently, this guy was stubborn. So was Hidan, though.

He didn't even bother speaking this time, he just kept his lips tightly shut and averted his eyes to the side, knowing that with dojutsus – especially the Sharingan – eye-contact was key to manipulate people. And he definitely didn't want to fall under any illusions today, no thank you.

Strangely enough, the man didn't bother to use his Sharingan. Instead, he opted to continue talking to Hidan, which would normally have continued to fail, except for when he said, "Just tell me what your association is with Sakura Haruno, and I'll let you go after that, alright?"

Hidan resisted, really he did, but secretly he felt a little guilty for leaving the girl he owed behind yesterday. Sure, he'd gotten her to her village in one piece – physically – but she had needed much better help when Kakuzu and that other one had arrived and he probably should have done more. He was just more interested in saving his own ass before anybody else's, so the weirdo puppet freak had paid the price and the pink-haired girl had looked devastated afterwards. Hidan had only stuck around long enough to see her break down in tears, but then the Leaf ninja had started filling the area and he didn't want to be trussed up like a test subject if they got their grubby paws on him.

So he'd dumped his heavier things – the scythe and the cloak although he'd wanted his scythe immediately afterwards, hence he had watched this guy and followed him – and took off before he could be spotted. Or so he had assumed.

This man knew that pink-haired girl and because he was from her village, he couldn't be an enemy of hers. So maybe, Hidan could answer his questions, just a few. He still owed her – in **his** mind, anyway.

"Fine, you wanna know so badly, I'll tell you," he kept his eyes on the hedges to his right, but he could tell he had the silver-haired Leaf nin's complete attention, "I owed her a favour, so I helped her get home. I wouldn't hurt her, if that's what you're worried about. Now are you gonna untie me so I can go, or what?"

A pause, then, "You're an Akatsuki, though, aren't you?"

"Hey, you said I didn't have to answer anything else, you rat bastard! Untie me, like we agreed."

He accidentally looked back at the other ninja to fix him with his hardest glare, but he was a little put off to see genuine confusion written in the man's expression – as much as could be gleaned from an eye and the subsequent brow it was paired with. Something Hidan had said baffled the stranger.

"I'm just trying to understand why someone from that group would actually carry a shred of honour or compassion for a complete stranger, that's all. It must have been one heck of a favour you owed her…"

"It wasn't that much…she just treated me like a person. It's no big deal…And hey! I'm **not** an Akatsuki, so stop saying I am!"

The man's eye crinkled a little, like he found something amusing from that, "I'd say it is a pretty big deal, for you," his visible eye drifted down to the Akatsuki cloak, "So, you **were** an Akatsuki, but you're not anymore?"

"That's damn right!" The crinkle grew to a true squint and this time Hidan was sure he was smiling. "Hey wait, you tricked me!"

"No I didn't. I think you wanted to tell me, but you just needed a little push first. So, you're not my enemy anymore, right? I'll untie the ropes, give you back your weapon, but you have to swear not to attack me. Deal?" Hidan eagerly nodded his head, even as he mentally crossed his fingers to void the agreement. "Oh, and one other thing before I do untie you. Sakura was my student and she's a good friend of mine. If you lied to me, I'll find out."

Hidan grumbled in annoyance, knowing he couldn't just gut this guy when he was free after all, "I didn't lie. I still owe Pinky, so I won't…**damnit**…I won't attack you."

"That's all I needed to know," the other man slid a kunai from his pouch and made a simple cut along one of the ropes, loosening the ones around his torso. He mimicked the action for Hidan's hands and legs, then handed the Jashinist his three-bladed scythe, "This belongs to you. I wouldn't have had a use for it anyway. It's too clunky and easy to spot. I'm Kakashi Hatake, by the way."

Hidan's fingers grasped the handle of his trusty weapon and he used it to lever himself from the ground, his legs a little unsure after being stuck in one uncomfortable position for so long. His blood lust itched to maim this man, make him pay for humiliating him. Lord Jashin would have liked the offering too, he was sure, but the simple act of trust he'd placed in Hidan made him pause and reconsider. If he killed him, he'd probably regret it later. Maybe. Besides, the guy knew Sakura and Hidan didn't want to disappoint her any more than he already had. Murdering someone close to her might just do that.

It was then that he back-tracked and realised what his former foe had called himself, "Wait, the copy-ninja?! Kakuzu always went on and on about the bounty on your head, the bastard. No wonder you got me so fast, you have all those techniques you stole."

Kakashi looked visibly offended, "I didn't steal anything. I merely copied them to be used in better ways. I take it Kakuzu was your partner in the Akatsuki, before?"

"Sure, whatever you say," Hidan strapped his scythe to his back again with the cord that was attached to the haft of the weapon, "And yeah, Kakuzu and me worked together for a while. I guess it's because he was the only person I wasn't able to kill if he pissed me off. Which he did, a lot. I swore that one day I'd find a way to kill him, though. I couldn't stand his obsession with money and…**things**. That whole group were too greedy, I had to get out. Sure, they let me kill people, but I didn't give a shit about their goals or plans. Bored the crap out of me anyways."

"Huh. Well that's certainly…interesting. So, what should I call you?"

Hidan barely even realised that he'd been ranting about possible secrets, because at this point it was just nice to vent about something he'd kept bottled up for so long. He couldn't stand any of the cloying, obsessive mission crap they always spouted when he had to go to meetings. He didn't care about the Akatsuki's ideals. He only agreed to join because they'd look the other way when he sacrificed people to his God. Now that he'd finally left them behind, speaking his mind was strangely freeing.

"Hidan, my name's Hidan."

"Well, it's been good having this talk, Hidan, but now that I've solved one mystery, I need to be on my way. I'm sure you realise that you can't wander off into Konoha and start murdering anyone, right? I'll let you go, just not so you can wreak havoc on my village."

Kakashi finally packed the rest of his belongings away, although he left the Akatsuki cloak to one side, and then he slung his pack back over his shoulders, ready to get going on the open road again. Hidan glanced at the cloak, resenting it the longer he looked at it, but he knew that without it he'd probably freeze from the cold – even though logically he couldn't be killed like that – so he lifted it from the ground and looped his arms through the sleeves. He didn't bother fastening the front, but he repositioned his scythe so it fit through the hole he'd added in the back when he first wore it. Then he opened his mouth without thinking about what he was saying, "Mind if I tag along? It's not like I have anything better to do."

Kakashi's footsteps faltered before he'd gotten more than a couple of feet away from the Jashinist, but he recovered his cool and calmly replied, "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Awww come on! I'm bored and at least this way I have someone to take the piss out of when I want to."

"You know that won't convince me to change my mind, right?"

"Well, wouldn't you rather I was near you so I don't go 'killing innocent people'? This way, you can watch me, and I can get some fun out of it."

Hidan couldn't explain why he was so eager for the Leaf ninja to agree, but he wouldn't deny that **any** company right now would be better than nothing. Talking to yourself wasn't as fun as talking to someone else, after all. And he'd be lying if he didn't want to find out how Sakura was doing after the battle yesterday.

"Fine, you can come with me. But when we get to Suna, wait outside until I'm done. I don't want people to think the Akatsuki are attacking **again**."

"Yeah, sure, whatever."

Inside however, he was dreading going back to the Sand village. Just the thought of desert again made his feet itch and his head hurt.

* * *

Present day…

Kakashi slipped away from the hospital room when it looked like everything would be alright – _'I didn't see that coming, that's for sure. I hope Sakura doesn't punch him for kissing her without permission first.' _He followed the hallway back towards the main hospital and pushed through the doors that would take him to the other secure ward, Ward One. This place wasn't as guarded as the other one, and Kakashi didn't have to worry about there being a seal in place when he stopped at door number 27. He nodded briefly to the one ANBU guard stationed, then pushed the door open to enter a small, windowless room. The sole occupant of the room was heavily sedated and hooked up to one heart monitor, lying completely still - aside from the steady breathing - on the bed.

The elders had felt that this man couldn't be trusted to wander the streets and he certainly wasn't trusted to be left in the normal prison either. So, they'd dragged him to the hospital in secret and quickly applied the drugs to his system, not wanting him to get up and go anytime soon. They didn't need to interrogate him for information, because he had freely told Kakashi everything he knew days ago – none of it relevant or new. The elders planned, at a later date and once they had coerced Tsunade into agreeing, to have this man dissected and tested to discover just what made him immortal.

Kakashi, however, was not going to let them do that now. Tsunade had given her approval for Kakashi to get him out of here, on the condition that he not set foot back in Konoha again. Now that one crisis had been dealt with, the copy-nin felt he could fully commit to freeing this man.

Because he owed Hidan a debt and he would make good on repaying it.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** If I owned_ Naruto_, I'd have made a killing off of the gaming merchandise alone. But I'm skint, so it's clearly not mine. I'm merely borrowing the characters - and the series - to completely alter the reality of everyone to suit my needs.

S'up my loyal readers! I'm glad that so many people viewed the last chapter and I'm super happy that people are still reading this. I'm grateful for any and all feedback that I get for this story, because it's been through it's ups and downs in this process, just to get this far after about seven years working on this trilogy. I know, I'm slow.

Still no Deidara, I'm sorry to say, but he's definitely coming up. I feel like there's too much _not _happening in this chapter, but maybe that's just me. I know my _Bleach_ story is moving a little faster in places, but that's probably only because I have fight scenes in that one and not in this yet.

I hope I've given everyone equal time in this chapter, but I still feel like Hidan's taking over. Maybe I need to get rid of him. I have plans for everyone in this, so hopefully what I plan to do to him will help ease off his leaching of the lime light.

Once again, enjoy and leave me any feedback if you like! ^-^

Oh, forgot to say this before, but since Hidan's in this story, expect foul language. He can't be stopped, it's just his nature. Apologies in advance.

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Sakura blinked in shock – it was her first proper kiss after all, if you didn't count Naruto trying to kiss her back when they were kids – but she quickly melted into his soft lips and followed what her instincts told her to do to. She pressed forwards to close the gap between their bodies even further, when a throat suddenly cleared **very** loudly in the room. The pinkette pulled away from the puppet master, completely flustered, and looked over to where her Master and Shizune were standing awkwardly in the room. For some reason, she felt like her mum had just caught her doing something she shouldn't have been doing, although she knew that logically Tsunade was merely her teacher and leader – not her parent.

'_Wow, this is embarrassing.'_

The warmth that had filled Sakura's whole heart from the kiss Sasori had bestowed on her hummed pleasantly throughout her body and her face felt like it would never stop blushing. She briefly took a look back at Sasori, although for some reason she felt shy about doing so, and noted that he appeared very irritated. It was probably because he'd been interrupted, something that the pink-haired Chunin knew to be one of his many pet-peeves. He had his faults, she recalled fondly, but she still loved him for them.

'_And I do, love him that is. As soon as we're alone, I'll tell him how I feel. I hope this kiss means he feels the same way, otherwise I'm getting some seriously mixed signals here.'_

"I'm sorry to break up this…interesting reunion, but there are still things that need to be discussed. Questions that you both have to answer if I'm to start getting those old fogies off of my back."

At this, Shizune produced a blank sheet of paper from her seemingly never ending supply on her clip board and handed it to Sakura, along with a fountain pen.

Sakura looked at the objects like they were toxic frogs or something, before asking her teacher with a slight frown on her face, "What are these for, Lady Tsunade?"

Tsunade folded her arms and looked expectantly at the two younger ninja, "I think you've kept silent about your activities from over a week ago long enough, Sakura. I want you to write down everything you can recall about the Akatsuki, from the moment you met Sasori here," she nodded to the red-head, "to the moment that you fought with those other two, Kakuzu and his oddly dressed partner. While you do that, Sasori here can answer some questions, in detail, about the Akatsuki's goals and main operations."

Sasori levelled a steely glare at the Hokage, "Surely you know everything already - from Deidara I presume? You do have him in your custody, don't you? I don't expect you Leaf ninja like to allow criminals to walk freely amongst your precious civilians."

Tsunade's hazel eyes matched Sasori's glare and raised it with an eye-twitch too and she said, "We've already gotten a lot of information from the other one, Deidara, but he told our inquisitors that you were a senior member of the organisation before your defection. Perhaps even a founder of it..?" The puppet master reluctantly nodded a 'yes' to her question. "Then you need to tell us anything else that he wouldn't have known. After you've done that, both Deidara and yourself will be considered temporarily under our jurisdiction and you'll be treated as allies – free to wander the village at your leisure. If you don't co-operate, I'm afraid you'll be detained just like he is."

"Fine, I will tell you what you want to know. Just make sure that he's free as soon as I'm done."

Sakura was just going into detail about her imprisonment with the Darkness ninja – even though she felt it was all pretty redundant at this point because she'd already been over that mission before – when she jabbed the pen too roughly into the paper and punctured it. The knowledge that they'd had Deidara locked up, questioned and possibly **interrogated** for a week and nobody had prevented it upset her more than she could rationalise. She wasn't close to the brash blonde, but she'd started to equate him to Naruto in many of his quirks – and in the way he could successfully irritate her until she committed violence to silence him.

'_I hope he's at least being treated fairly until we can get him out. If I'd just gotten out of my self-afflicted angst sooner, he might have been let out a lot sooner. He's probably the closest thing to a friend that Sasori had ever known, as well. I shouldn't have let him down.'_

Her worry and guilt must have shown on her face, for Sasori moved one of his hands to start gently stroking her damp hair, attempting to soothe her pain away. And it was working, because any caring or gentle action that the puppet master performed always seemed to brighten her moods and fill the pinkette with warmth. His moments of complete humanity were special to her and she treasured every single one.

Tsunade spotted the change in her mood too, for she quickly tried to reassure the girl that nothing was amiss, "I swear, Sakura, he hasn't been tortured while he's been in our custody. He was actually surprisingly helpful when we asked him things and I made sure to let Ibiki know that no-one could talk to him without me in the room." The fifteen-year-old didn't look convinced, but thanks to Sasori's thoughtfulness, Sakura's worry had started to fade. The Fifth Hokage continued on, "He's fine, as far as I know. Why don't you two go and visit him as soon as we're done here?"

"That would be agreeable, Lady Hokage. Now, can we get on with these questions, or do you want to try my patience even further?"

'_Typical Sasori, never knowing when to wait. Unless I ask him too, that is. He tries, for me, at least.'_

* * *

Hidan blearily started to come around when he heard a calm voice droning on to some slightly jittery voice on the edges of his senses. He couldn't remember how he had gotten drugged in the first place, but he'd definitely admit that it was the best damned sleep he'd had in years. He tried to lift a hand to rub the sleep from his eyes and felt a resistance on his wrist. The result was the same for the other wrist and he came to understand that he'd also been shackled to something while he was out of it.

'_Whoever the fuck did this is dead when I find them.'_

He blinked to clear the sleep from his eyes, momentarily blinded by the bright white of the room – _'fucking hospitals, I hate them!' _His hearing improved the longer he was awake and he finally registered the sounds of a heart monitor 'beep'-ing steadily to his left and the voices coming from his right. His vision started focusing more and he concentrated on trying to see who the unwanted visitors in the room might be. One of them had their back to him – the calmly speaking person – while the one dressed in an obvious doctor get-up stood with their face exposed to the Jashinist.

The doctor appeared to be very unnerved and he kept wringing his hands together and stuttering out replies every time the other man spoke. The other person was decidedly familiar to Hidan and the longer he looked at his back, the quicker his brain connected the dots. The stupid, floppy silver hair gave him away in the end and Hidan swallowed past the dryness in his throat to get the man's attention, "What the fuck am I doin' here, Kakashi?"

The doctor almost leapt a foot in the air when Hidan's voice broke through their conversation, but Kakashi didn't appear surprised at all. The copy-nin rotated around to include the Jashinist in their discussion and shrugged casually as he replied with, "Your guess is as good as mine, Hidan. You're not sick or injured, so you don't need to be in the hospital at all, right doctor?" The jonin raised his visible eyebrow in the nervous man's direction and the doctor rapidly shook his head in agreement. "That's good to hear! So, shall we get him released so he can be on his way?"

Somehow the doctor found the nerve to try and prevent this when he stuttered out, "I d-don't think that the c-council will be h-happy about this, Hatake."

"It doesn't matter what they think, because the Hokage gave her consent to have Hidan released and escorted out of Konoha. You wouldn't want to upset Lady Tsunade, would you doctor?"

The man hastily shook his hands as he said, ""N-no, heaven's no! Here's the key, now just take him and go!"

The copy-nin took the proffered key from the doctor, who immediately fled from the hospital room as if death itself was stalking him. Kakashi busied himself with unlocking the restraints on Hidan's arms and legs, before moving around and unhooking the other medical equipment that they'd strapped to his body to monitor vitals and other technical things that he'd never understand. Hidan sat up and rolled the kinks out of his neck and shoulders, aware that he'd be a little sore from being asleep in one position for a long duration.

"How long was I out for?"

"Only for a day. They didn't get the chance to do anything more than put you out, luckily."

Hidan breathed a sigh of relief and pushed off of the bed, glad that they hadn't taken his clothes off of him either. His shoes were standing by the foot of the bed, but he didn't see anything else that belonged to him in the room. He turned to the silver-haired jonin and asked, "What happened to my stuff, Kakashi?"

The jonin propped his body against the doorway as he waited for Hidan to get his shoes back on and said, "Don't worry about your things. I kept them somewhere safe so they wouldn't be taken from you." Kakashi watched the other man finish putting on his foot wear and moved away from the door frame and into the hallway. He kept his voice low when he said, "We need to get moving before that doctor comes back with ANBU, or worse. Keep your head down and stick close to me."

Hidan narrowed his eyes at the copy ninja, "I thought you said I was allowed to leave?"

"You are, but Tsunade hasn't exactly told the council members of her decision yet. It was all sort of a last minute rush and she's probably going to get into trouble before the day is out. Which is why we need to hurry and leave."

"Alright, alright! Keep your fucking pants on, I'm going."

The former Akatsuki exited the room and stuck to the Leaf ninja's shadow, trying to be as invisible as he could until they got out of the claustrophobic maze that was the Konoha General Hospital.

* * *

"Well I think that fills in some more of the gaps with our intel. Maybe now we can start being one step ahead of those bastards." The blonde Hokage gave a nod to Shizune, who collected Sakura's completed report, added it to the substantial notes in her arms, and then exited the ward – presumably to hand it over to the council members.

Sakura finally relaxed in Sasori's lap, glad that no more questions would be asked. Perhaps because her mind was more at ease, the pink-haired teen finally noticed the room's silent occupant lying on the bed. At first, Sakura was startled by how deathly still the Elder of the Sand Village, Chiyo, lay on the mattress. However, the young medic soon pieced together part of the problem that had been nagging at the back of her mind.

'_Lady Chiyo must have done something to revive and repair Sasori. She's the only person who might have been able to.'_

The puppet master spoke up, as if reading Sakura's thoughts, "I think my Grandmother used a forbidden medical Ninjutsu to bring me back, Sakura."

Sakura looked to her mentor to corroborate this.

"It was a technique that I've never heard of or seen before. Essentially, it traded Chiyo's life for Sasori's. Shizune and I still can't work out what she did, but Chiyo was gone before Sasori even regained consciousness. Whatever she used is lost with her."

The pinkette reached for one of Sasori's hands and gave it a gentle squeeze to try and comfort him. She knew that he wasn't close to his grandmother after the long years of being on the run, but not even getting to say goodbye – or get any kind of closure – must be an awful thing to go through.

In death, the old woman looked younger and at peace. The lines along her brow and around her eyes were not as severe as Sakura remembered them being. Sakura only hoped that she passed painlessly, although no-one would ever really know.

'_Thank you for giving him back to me, Lady Chiyo. I'll look after him so you didn't have to die for nothing. I swear it.'_

* * *

Sasori still hadn't processed the sacrifice his estranged grandmother had made for him. That she would give her life for his pseudo-existence led the puppeteer to consider that she had continued to love him, even after all these years.

'_That or she still felt guilty for tricking me and pushing me away.'_

If he wanted to start changing, becoming a better person for Sakura, then he would just have to believe it was the former and not the latter which directed Chiyo's actions. Now it was his turn to try and do something for the old woman, even though her spirit was long gone from this world.

"I'm taking her body back to Suna so that she can be given a proper funeral. Her brother, my Great-Uncle, can arrange the details once she's back there."

"Are you sure you don't want to help him with that?"

"I would not know where to begin, Sakura. So no, it is better if I merely take her home and then leave. I would not be welcome by Ebiso anyway, I suspect."

"Alright then," Sakura reluctantly agreed, a sigh passing her lips as she did.

Sasori knew that she expected him to grieve with his remaining family member and endure the whole process, but he was still largely indifferent to sentimentality and he did not want to spoil the final moments that Ebiso would have with his sister before her burial. It was better for both parties that he stayed away. The old man had never cared for Sasori while he had lived in Suna and Sasori held nothing but contempt for the old man now.

The Hokage gave one last glance at Chiyo's body, before she easily agreed with Sasori's request. He hadn't needed her permission though. He was planning to take Chiyo's body back to Suna, with or without her approval. He was merely being polite for Sakura's sake, as the blonde woman was the pink-haired medic's mentor.

"I'll arrange for you to take her body once we release your friend from his cell." Tsunade walked to the still open door and gestured over her shoulder, "If you'll both stop with your mushy cuddling now and follow me, we can get this over with."

Sasori tensed up when he heard this, worried about Sakura's reaction to the Hokage's words. Would she suddenly reject him? Had he been too forward and acted too hastily? Tsunade proceeded off into the corridor, assuming that they'd both start following her, so Sasori hesitantly twisted around until he could see Sakura's face, to try and guess her feelings. He was not so shocked to see her blushing as red as his hair, for he'd come to understand that she was easily flustered when embarrassed.

'_But does she want to be with me, or is she ashamed now that she's had time to think?'_

Apparently, he had nothing to worry about for the time being, because she slipped off of his lap and still kept a firm grip on his hand, threading her fingers with his so he couldn't let go. She was still a deep red colour, but she was smiling all the same when she said to him, "We'd better keep up with her, or she'll save a punishment for us to use at a later date, when we can't even remember what we did 'wrong'. Come on!"

She tugged his arm and he followed.

It was something he'd probably continue to do for many years: follow Sakura wherever she wanted to go.

* * *

The two grey scale individuals left the hospital with no incidents, which shocked Kakashi. He'd expected at least a little resistance from some of the staff, or even some complaining from his brash companion. Kakashi wouldn't be surprised if they encountered problems leaving the village though, because security had been upped since the incident last week with the Akatsuki battle. The copy ninja still found it hard to believe how much had shifted and changed, all because of one girl befriending one too many crazy characters.

'_I don't know how Sakura did it, but she drew out just enough good intentions from those three S-Class ninja to flip their allegiances. Hopefully, none of us come to regret allowing them to roam free. Well, two of them at least. Hidan's going to be the problem.'_

Kakashi wanted to trust Hidan to keep to the task that Tsunade and he had come up with, but the Jashinist was fickle at the best of times. If it hadn't been for the journey they'd made during this last week, Kakashi wouldn't even have considered Hidan for the job. He might agree at first, and he might stick with the plan for a while, but eventually he'd get bored or someone would get killed for his so-called 'God', and then they'd have to fix the problem.

'_Let's hope it won't come to that.'_

"So, where are you keeping my things, Kakashi? Not in some elaborate dungeon, I hope. I don't fancy getting lost trying to find my rosary and my scythe. That'd be the best way to complete my crappy day."

"Your day isn't so bad, Hidan. I got you out, didn't I? And it isn't raining, so that has to be a plus, right?" When the magenta-eyed man only levelled Kakashi with an unamused glare, the copy-nin shoved his hands into the pockets of his vest and continued, "I left them under a log in the training grounds. Follow me."

The duo were about to turn down a side-street that would lead to said training grounds, when a familiar voice halted them both in their tracks.

"Kakashi-sensei! There you are! Where the heck's Sakura gotten to?"

The silver-haired jonin angled his head to look at the blonde youth that had just jogged up the road towards them. So far, he hadn't noticed Hidan, but Naruto wasn't as dumb as he looked and it was only a matter of time before he asked questions. Thinking fast, Kakashi grabbed Hidan's right-arm and substituted them both – with a litter bin – to just behind the hospital. The distance wasn't far, but with a whole building in between them, Kakashi figured that Naruto would soon lose interest and give up trying to find them.

"Who was that blonde brat? And why the fuck did we have to run away like that?"

"That…was Naruto. He can't keep a secret for very long and the last thing we want is him realising who you are. He doesn't know you like Sakura and I do, so you'd be better off not staying too near to him for now."

"Yeah, sure, whatever. Let's just get my stuff so I can leave this shit hole."

Kakashi released his grip on Hidan's arm, but he whacked him lightly on the head for the slight against his home. Nobody insulted the Leaf village and got away with it.

"We'll just have to go around the longer route to get to the training grounds. Not that I mind, because I never arrive anywhere on time, as a rule."

"Face it, you're a lazy bastard."

"I could still leave you, you know. I'm sure the ANBU are already looking for you in the hospital. One word and you'd be back there, strapped to the gurney while they readied you for dissection."

"Okay, okay, I get it! I know you're helping me and…I guess I should…thank…you."

It was clearly hard for the Jashinist to say, but Kakashi appreciated the sentiment all the same.

"You're welcome. Now, let's go."

"Finally! When I get my scythe back I'm gonna…"

Hidan trailed off and stopped dead, looking at something just beyond Kakashi's shoulder. The copy-nin followed Hidan's gaze and blinked in surprise when he saw Tsunade, Sakura and Sasori – the latter two with their hands entwined together – just leaving via the back entrance to the hospital. The trio had halted immediately and Sakura actually looked to be panicking a little bit.

Tsunade folded her arms and shot an annoyed glare at Kakashi, grumbling, "I thought you'd have been long gone with that pig by now, Kakashi. What's the matter, losing your edge?"

"Sorry, we got a little waylaid."

Sakura's quiet voice interrupted the back-and-forth between the two, "What's Hidan doing here, Kakashi-sensei?"

The silver-haired jonin met her eyes and tried to convey his apologies through his expression, but before he could explain, the loud-mouth just **had** to open his trap, "Not happy to see me, pinky? I'm hurt."


End file.
